| RHODE
ISLAND CONSTITUTION Acknowledgment of God Preamble.
We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which
He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon
our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same, unimpaired, to succeeding generations,
do ordain and establish this Constitution of government.
Religion
Clauses Article I, section 3. Whereas Almighty
God hath created the mind free; and all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments
or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend to beget habits of hypocrisy and
meanness; and whereas a principal object of our venerable ancestors, in their
migration to this country and their settlement of this state, was, as they expressed
it, to hold forth a lively experiment that a flourishing civil state may stand
and be best maintained with full liberty in religious concernments; we, therefore,
declare that no person shall be compelled to frequent or to support any religious
worship, place, or ministry whatever, except in fulfillment of such person's voluntary
contract; nor enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in body or goods; nor
disqualified from holding any office; nor otherwise suffer on account of such
person's religious belief; and that every person shall be free to worship God
according to the dictates of such person's conscience, and to profess and by argument
to maintain such person's opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall
in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect the civil capacity of any person.
Education
None
Finance/Property Tax
None
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Copyright
© 2002-2008 by Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP. All rights reserved.
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